This is the network that's expanding from 1996, which aired the Arab Spring online. They bought Current TV, and I'm hoping like the dickens that they'll be "open" enough to be the alternative to what I can no longer watch (which is why I primarily watched Current and BBC America).

The Stream, 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT – On tonight’s show, we talk to Egyptians and Egyptian Americans about the human cost of the political crisis in their homeland while engaging with our audience via social media.

Nightly News, 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT – John Seigenthaler discusses the day’s breaking news topics and offers analysis on current events from across the U.S. and around the world.

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top secret documents.

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that result in unintended interception of U.S. emails and telephone calls.

The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Asked about this information, the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court told The Washington Post that the court lacks the tools to independently verify how often government surveillance breaks the court's rules that aim to protect the privacy of Americans. Without drastic steps, it also cannot check the veracity of government claims that all the violations its staff reports are unintentional mistakes, the judge said.

This was the season final until September. I enjoyed this panel, but I have to say that Frank woefully stunk in understanding what is going on in the middle class. At several points he was handed his hat by the panelist next to him (I'm forgetting her, but she was well informed). I could tell this pissed him off so that the only retaliation was to talk over her, which didn't undo her feathers. She presented a good argument to question, "if we need more police to take care of high crime areas, why were they primarily positioned around Occupy Wall Street, rather than high crime areas?" He's out to lunch even after Washington on the role of police, and the squeezing of middle class. She pointed out his backing away from legislation that showed a political strategy, which is think made him sit there like he pooped his pants during the rest of the show. That was good, as I wanted to listen to another person with ideas a million times better than Barney Frank... Jay Z!